Bermuda win; Bahamas advance on technicality

In the first of two matches today, the Bahamas faced the British Virgin Islands at home in Nassua for the second time in five days. Coming into the second leg with the aggregate tied at 1-1, the favored Bahamanians felt pressure to deliver a first round victory over their opponents. The Bahamas looked to be in great position to meet Jamaica in June after nabbing a two-goal lead before the hour. Even after British Virgin Islands' captain Anadale Williams knocked home a goal late in the second half, it appeared to be too little, too late. Suddenly, in the nintieth minute, Williams struck again and the final whistle came with the scored tied at 2-2.

The aggregate was now tied at 3-3 apiece. With both legs having been played in Nassau, surely extra time was to be played. Unfortunately, a terrible decision was handed down. Because the British Virgin Islands had forfeited the right to a home game to the Bahamas, the second game had actually counted as a "road" game for Bahamas. Bahamas scored twice in their "road" match compared to the British Virgin Islands' one in the first match and advanced on the road-goals tiebreaker 2-1. This ruling was an absolute travesty. If anything, British Virgin Islands should have advanced 3-0 on the road-goals tiebreaker. In all honesty, though, this tie should have gone to an extra period followed by a penalty-kick shootout should the scored have remained tied at the end of an additional half hour.

"We missed all our chances, but we should have scored four or five. We will make things right in the second leg." -Keith Tucker, coach of Bermuda

In a tie that also began the day knotted at one goal apiece, Bermuda visited the Cayman Islands. Bermuda did not allowed for an upset result this time around and built a 2-0 lead going into the half. Another goal stretched the lead to three before the hour mark. The Caymans had already garnered four yellow cards before Bermuda's Kevin Richards earned their only yellow for taking down a Cayman player inside of the penalty area. The ensuing Cayman penalty-kick goal rounded out the scoring 3-1. The 4-2 aggregate victory sends Bermuda to face Trinidad and Tobago in round two of CONCACAF qualifying in June.

Goal scorers:
Bahamas: Bethel 40; Mitchell 52

British Virgin Islands: Williams 78, 90

Bermuda: DeGraff 18, 25; Steede 52

Cayman Islands: Forbes 63 PK

Puerto Rico win 1-0 in extra time; Antigua and Barbuda, El Salvador, Netherlands Antilles, Belize advance

Antigua and Barbuda went home to face Aruba with a comfortable 3-0 lead in the aggregate. The Antiguans did not do themselves any favors, however, by having two players ejected before the hour mark, including their captain George Dublin right before halftime. Schyan Jeffers also picked up a red card. If Aruba had any hope of scoring three goals, it increased exponentially with the two-man advantage. Unfortunately, the Arubans were unable to do anything to score and in fact gave up a goal with the huge advantage. They were lucky to surrender only one because Antiguan player Troy Simon missed a penalty kick during the match. Damien Farrell picked up two yellows after the eighty-fifth minute, including one in stoppage, and was also sent off. Antigua and Barbuda finished the game with only eight players yet came out with a 1-0 win as well. It is too bad that the Antiguans decided to be on their absolute worst behavior, because now three starting players are suspended for the first match against Cuba.

Neighbors Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic had a one-off battle in Bayamón. It was expected to be intense, but it was not expected to be close as Puerto Rico were heavy favorites. Well, the match ended up being one for the ages. In fact, ninety mintues were not enough to determine a victor. A scoreless regular time gave way to a dramatic extra period. Both coaches had been stingy with their substitutions in regular time; Dominican Republic had one left and Puerto Rico still had two. Puerto Rico converted a penalty six minutes in and promptly focused on retaining the slim margin. When the final whistle blew, the Puerto Ricans could breath a sigh of relief, knowing that the one-goal shutout was good enough to give them a shot at Honduras.

El Salvador had their victory parade in the form of a second match against hapless Anguilla. Going home with a 12-0 aggregate lead, the Salvadorians had little to play for but boosting their goal totals. Anguilla were playing to salvage their pride. With a date to play Panamá all but assured, El Salvador grabbed a four-goal lead in the first half and then coasted into the second round with a 16-0 aggregate romp.

Netherlands Antilles came home to Willemstad with a surprising 1-0 aggregate lead over Nicaragua. The return leg was also remarkably successful for Netherlands Antilles. After taking a one-goal lead into the half, the crowd in Willemstad was witness to a mental implosion by Nicaragua's Eustace Martin, who pulled drew two yellow cards in a two-minute span and was expelled from the game at the hour mark. Down a man, the Nicaraguans needed a miracle, but none came and the final score in Willemstad was 2-0. The two cards for Martin were part of a collection of five yellows in total for Nicaragua. Netherlands Antilles will face Haiti in the next round.

Belize were looking to book a second round date with México. The only thing standing in their way was the team from St. Kitts and Nevis, a dangerous outfit despite a 3-1 aggregate deficit. The crowd at Basseterre was hoping for their home side to make a comeback in the tie, but a late goal in the first half by Belize meant that St. Kitts and Nevis had to score three goals in order to send the tie into extra time. They managed to pull one goal back, but it was too little too late and now Belize can look forward to facing their powerful neighbor in June.

Goal scorers:
Antigua and Barbuda: Challenger 86

Puerto Rico: Villegas 96 PK

El Salvador: Cerritos 8; Corrales 15; Monteagudo 23; Torres 35

Netherlands Antilles: Loran 42; Zimmerman 81

Belize: E. Smith 41

St. Kitts and Nevis: Mitchum 82

Barbados 1 - Dominica 0; Grenada, St. Lucia, Suriname advance; Bahamas tie

"There's no reason we can't get right at them in that second leg and get their fans on their backs." -Richard Pacquette of Dominica

Barbados were not pleased with their situation heading into the second leg. They felt that they were the favorites heading into the tie against Dominica and were looking to improve upon the 1-1 aggregate scoreline. No goals were scored in a tense first half. In the sixty-second minute, an odd situation broke out. Rashida Williams of Barbados was given a red card, but the captain of Dominica Colin Bernard was also shown red. The game proceeded with ten-on-ten action and Barbadoes wound up victorious on a lone goal scored within ten minutes of full time. The United States of America wait for Barbados now that they have won their first round tie 2-1 on aggregate goals.

"We have made enough improvements in the past few years to give them a game. We are optimistic about our chances and it will not be an easy walkover for Grenada."- Dwight Ferguson of the United States Virgin Islands

Grenada took all of the drama out of their one-leg tie with the United States Virgin Islands and in the process made Ferguson sound foolish. They showed absolutely no mercy to their overmatched opponents, taking a 5-0 lead into half time and then coasting to a 10-0 win in St. George's. Costa Rica should prove to be more of a challenge for Grenada in the second round.

St. Lucia were down 2-1 in the aggregate to surprising Turks and Caicos Islands. With a ticket to play Guatemala at stake, the Lucians did not want to disappoint their faithful in Vieux Fort. A goal in the first half tied the aggregate score at 2-2, but it put the pressure on Turks and Caicos Islands because they were down in the road-goals tiebreaker. The visitors were unable to respond and in fact surrendered a second goal to lose the match 2-0 and the tie 3-2.

Suriname played Montserrat in a one-leg playoff held in Trinidad and Tobago. The South American nation made easy meat out of the British tiny island, although the game was much closer in the first half. Suriname broke the scoring seal in the thirty-sixth minute and had a 2-0 lead at halftime. Montserrat came out of the gates quickly in the second half and knocked home a goal within five minutes of the restart to make it 2-1. That is when the avalanche of Suriname goals began. Eventually, the score wound up 7-1 and Suriname will now meet neighbors Guyana, the only other South American team playing in CONCACAF.

Bahamas were playing host to British Virgin Islands for the first time on Wednesday. After a scoreless first half, the Bahamas bagged their first goal quickly after the second half began. The visiting underdogs were not about to go away, though, and fought back to come out with a 1-1 tie. In what could be considered questionable coaching, there were no substitutes made by the Bahamanians in the entire match. The Bahamas will host the British Virgin Islands again on Sunday with a berth in the second round against Jamaica at stake.

Goal scorers:
Barbados: Stanford 84

Grenada: J. Roberts 3, 8; Charles 9, 43, 87; Rennie 22; Langiagne 56; Bubb 82, 83; Ferguson 89 OG (United States Virgin Islands)

St. Lucia: McPhee 28; Elva 85

Suriname: Cristoph 36, 55; Wondel 44; Valies 64; Huur 80; Schurman 86, 88

Montserrat: Farrell 48

Bahamas: St. Fleur 47

British Virgin Islands: Lennon 76

Bahrain 1 - Japan 0; Jordan, Qatar win; two exhilarating draws

Turkmenistan and Jordan were looking to avoid last place in Group C. With a two-goal shutout, Jordan took all of the points on the road in Ashgabat to send Turkmenistan into the cellar. Jordan are now positioned in third place in the group with three points, one behind each of the Koreas.

Syria hosted group leaders United Arab Emirates and got off to a quick start. The hosts pushed home a goal two minutes after the whistle. Still, the United Arab Emirates were not going down without a fight and they ended up scoring an equalizer due to the scoring prowess of Ismail Matar in the second half. The road draw puts the Emiratis on top of Group E with four points.

Bahrain pulled off the shock of the day while playing host to Japan. The two group leaders heading into the day, Bahrain and Japan were looking toward this game as the stepping stone into first place. The ball was having trouble finding its way into the back of the net until Bahrain struck gold with a header off of a cross in minute seventy-seven to send Japan reeling and the crowd in Manāmah into a frenzy. The scoreline held and Bahrain took first place in Gorup B with the 1-0 win.

Qatar, off of a big loss to Australia, tried to salvage a better result at home in Doha against the defending Asian Cup champions Iraq. Qatar did that and more with a wonderful, flowing attacking game and a stifling defense. Iraq never looked to be in the game and perhaps the 2-0 victory for Qatar does not illustrate how the Qataris so completely controlled the game. Qatar's coach Jorge Fossati spoke about the performance. "On this occasion we stuck with our game plan and managed to break up Iraq's fluid passing game. That will give us confidence for the games ahead."

Kuwait welcomed perennial power Iran to town. The crowd in Kuwait City could not have been pleased with the start of the match as Iran knocked home two goals in the first five minutes. It appeared that the Iranians would rout the Kuwaitis and make up for their opening draw with Syria. The Kuwaitis had other ideas. They stormed back into the match with a goal to make the score 2-1 at the half. A goal with under ten minutes remaining meant that Kuwait would at least come out with a point at home against mighty Iran. The final score read 2-2. Mesaed Al Enezi was sent off for Kuwait with a red card just before the final whistle to cap a tough battle which featured three yellows for each side.

Goal scorers:
Jordan: Albzoor 33; Bawab 86

Syria: Chaabo 2

United Arab Emirates: Matar 54

Bahrain: Hubail 77

Qatar: Quintana 1; Montesin 67

Iran: Vahedi 2; Hosseini 4

Kuwait: Al Azemi 38; Alrashidi 81

Uzbekistan 3 - Saudi Arabia 0; Singapore, Oman win; two scoreless draws

China played host to undermanned Australia in the elevated city of Kunming. Five of Australia's English-based players were unable to come play due to injury. TO make matters worse, Archie Thompson succumbed to an injury in the tenth minute and had to be substituted out of the game. With their only true attack of the day failing to connect when Marco Bresciano's volley was saved by Zong Lei, the Australians had little chance of winning. Luckily for the Australians, goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer did manage to show up healthy and complete the game. He made clutch save after clutch save to keep the game scoreless until the eighty-seventh minute when he made a crucial error, taking down Qu Bo inside the box for a penalty kick. Schwarzer made up for his mistake on the very next play, however, stuffing Shao Jiayi's penalty kick and preserving the road tie for Australia. "I must apologise to the team and the fans for that penalty kick," said Shao Jiayi after the game. "Because of me we did not win the game. We should have won the game but we didn't because I missed the penalty kick. I really feel bad about this." Schwarzer had a different take. "To lose that match to a late penalty would have been a disaster for us because I thought we deserved to get something out of the game."

The second slate of games began with North Korea facing off against neighboring South Korea in Shanghai, China. Both teams were coming off of wins in February and were looking to consolidate their positions on top of Group C. Although South Korea dominated most of the goal-scoring chances, this game ended in a scoreless draw. "We should have won this match," said South Korea's Park Ji-Sung. "We couldn't finish around the net."

Uzbekistan played host to group favorites Saudi Arabia in Tashkent. In what amounted to one of the bigger surprises so far in Asian qualifying, the Uzbeks pushed across the first goal during stoppage time in the first half. A two-goals-in-three-minutes run did in the Saudis for good as Uzbekistan won by a resounding 3-0 score and now sit atop Group D with six points.

Singapore and Lebanon did battle in Singapore. Singapore are the surprise qualifiers out of both rounds one and two, but they had suffered a loss to Saudi Arabia in February's qualifier. That memory was erased on this night. Two goals in the first thirty minutes gave Singapore a nice cushion which they held on to for the rest of the night. Singapore won 2-0. Lebanese coach Emile Rustom was not very complimentary of Singapore after the game, citing the fact that some of his starters were unavailable due to injury. "It was expected. We were missing four key players; you can imagine Singapore without four players."

Thailand hosted Oman. Oman scored the fastest goal of the day in Asian qualifying, delivering the opening blow just twenty seconds into the match. There were no more goals scored for the rest of the day, however, and the visiting Omanis stole three points. Oman's coach Julio César Ribas spoke after the match. "To win three points away from home is hugely important. We can now continue fighting for qualification."

Goal scorers:
Uzbekistan: Kapadze 45+1; Shatskikh 65; Djeparov 67 PK

Singapore: Duric 8; Shahul 24

Oman: Al Ajmi 1

Eritrea withdraw

Eritrea have withdrawn from World Cup qualifying. Their spot in Group K will be left empty.

Togo, Zambia, and Swaziland will contest their games as previously scheduled. The top finisher in the group will go to the third round of African qualifying. There has been no word yet on how this change will affect how the top eight second-place finishers will be selected. Will only the results against the first-place and third-place finishers count in determining the top eight or will the second-place team from Group K be automatically eliminated?